


to shed light

by writing_addict



Series: a whole sky of different stars: fma au collection [5]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, The Illuminae Files - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Space Opera, Artificial Intelligence, BAMF Edward Elric, BAMF Winry Rockbell, Biological Weapons, Epistolary, Evil Corporations, F/M, Getting Back Together, Interviews, Military, Post-Break Up, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Indulgent, Slow To Update, Space zombies, Text/Chatroom Format, and will be completed in the gap between no mourners no funerals and the sequel, but i'll put warnings in those chapters, edward elric's amazing dossier of hacked government documents & records, eventual gore, eventually, illuminae au, im finally posting the interview chapter, kind of?, most of this won't be written/posted until after no mourners no funerals is over, that's right folks, this is gonna be a goddamn SAGA
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 09:18:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19082086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writing_addict/pseuds/writing_addict
Summary: Illuminae, n.: those who shed light, the radiant ones.This morning, Edward Elric thought breaking up with Winry Rockbell was the hardest thing he'd have to do. This afternoon, his planet was invaded.The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that's little more than a speck of ice at the edge of the universe. Ed and Winry--who are barely even on speaking terms--fight their way out by the skin of their teeth, and manage to get on the evacuating fleet...with an enemy warship hot on their heels.And that's the least of their problems. A deadly plague has mutated into something truly monstrous, and the fleet's A.I., which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy, and no one in charge will tell them what's going on. With time running out and their chance at justice--and more importantly, survival--slipping away, Ed has to hack through a tangled web of documents to get to the truth...but the one person who can help him bring it all to light is the ex-girlfriend he swore he'd never speak to again.So, yeah. It's shaping up to be a spectacular year.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, y'all! So, a few of you might remember that fic I wrote a little while back, a duet in code and electron. I promised that this AU would be fully fleshed out--and, well, here it is! writing_addict is proud to present "to shed light"--the full version of the Illuminae AU I offered a snippet of back in March.
> 
> As those of you who read my other works know, I have another full novel-length AU ongoing--no mourners, no funerals. As a result, I'm only posting the first two chapters of this AU and setting no update schedule. Most likely, I'll publish the rest after I finish that fic and before I start the sequel. And of course, conflicted by the very air i breathe will continue to update on Tuesdays. Ignis Aurum Probat is coming a little more slowly, but it'll update as soon as I get a chance!
> 
> Thank you for reading the notes, and I hope you enjoy this first glimpse of the wholly fleshed-out Illuminae Files AU

**MEMORANDUM FOR:** Executive Director Kimblee

**FROM:** Ghost ID (#3100-1915-3546-1804-235-1114-1516-ERROR-ERROR-ERROR…)

**INCEPT:** 01/29/76

**SUBJECT:** _Aegis_ Dossier

               So here’s the file that almost killed me, Director.

               I won’t bore you with the tally of databases plundered, light-years jumped, or poor, sniffling orphans created in its compilation—our fee (which you’ll no longer be questioning after reading this, I assure you) already reflects Level Of Difficulty. But this dirt is out there, if you know where to look—has been despite how much you and _A-Corp_ lauded your precious cleanup crews. Your corporate war isn’t quite as secret as you hoped. Which is, you know, where we come in.

               You’ll find all the intel we could scrounge up and secure concerned the Risembool disaster complied here in hard copy. When possible, scans of original documentation are included. Fun Times commence with the destruction of the Risembool colony (one year ago today—make a goddamn wish, Director) and proceed chronologically through the events on battlecarrier _Aegis_ and science vessel _Flamel_ as best as we can reconstruct them (you’ll find that we do a pretty fair job of it).

               All visual and audio data are included in original form, along with written transcripts. All typographical and graphical anomalies are present in the original files. Commentary from my team is marked by paper clip icons and can be found in the notes section preceding the events. Some written materials were censored by the UTA and had to be reconstructed by our commtechs, though profanity remains censored as per your instruction. Sure, the story kicks off with the deaths of thousands of people, but god forbid someone drops an f-bomb, right?

The Alchemist Group

_In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act._

_—Orwell_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: The following are extracts from debriefing interviews with the subjects of this dossier, Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell. The interviews were conducted shortly after the evacuation of Risembool IV.

**AEGIS-78V**

**MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR**

**UNITED TERRAN NAVY**

**AEGIS FLEET**

**Incept:** 01/30/75

* * *

**Interviewer:** Tell me about yesterday

**Edward Elric:** I was in class when it started. This…god, this is gonna sound so dumb, but I broke up with my girlfriend that morning, and she was right there on the other side of the room. I’m staring out the window like it’s some ~~fuck~~ ing movie or something, coming up with all the things I should say to the jerk, when these ships fly right overhead and all the windows start shaking.

**Interviewer:** Did you know what was happening?

**Edward Elric:** How would I possibly— _no._ No, because you don’t exactly jump to “space invasion” the first time something like this happens. Sure, the Risembool settlement wasn’t exactly _legal,_ but we still got traffic around the mine and refinery. I figured it was an ore carrier coming in too low and went back to plotting my ex’s downfall.

**Interviewer:** When did you become aware of the invasion?

**Edward Elric:** Now _that_ would be when all the sirens started screaming. Some clever ~~bastard~~ who’s probably dead now—sounded the spaceport alarms just in time. The _Defiant—_ that was our AKC protection ship—had transmitted an alert to let us know that some decidedly unfriendly folks with big guns had arrived and that we were all gonna, you know, _die—_

**Interviewer:** How do you know the _Defiant_ transmitted a warning?

**Edward Elric:** I’m good with computers. I wanted to know what was going on at the port, so I took a look and…well, there it was.

**Interviewer:** And you evacuated at that stage?

**Edward Elric:** “Evacuation’s” a nice word for it.

**Interviewer:** How would you describe it, then?

**Edward Elric:** Oh, just a jolly good time, our planet falling to pieces as a lovely chorus of screams and wails and explosions echoes in the background. How the ~~fuck~~ do you think it was? IT WAS A GOD ~~DAMN~~ INVASION!

**Interviewer:** How did you make it out?

**Edward Elric:** I’m a lateral thinker.

**Interviewer:** Meaning you used your comput—

**Edward Elric:** Meaning I broke open a window.

**Interviewer:** Oh.

**Edward Elric:** I had a truck in the parking lot. I borrowed my mom’s because I didn’t want to have to take the tube home with _her._ Having the truck there saved my life. I saw one of my teachers in the lot, and this chunk of metal came screaming in from the sky, and…

**Interviewer:** Mr. Elric?

**Edward Elric:** I had this moment when I’d thought I left the keys in my desk, and I pulled apart my bag and threw stuff everywhere—I guess I knew I wouldn’t need it again, isn’t that weird? But I found the keys in the bottom and jumped in, and just as I start the engine, I look across and she’s standing right there, looking at me. I swear—

**Interviewer:** Hold on, the survivor list is refreshing. What was the name you were after?

**Edward Elric:** Winry Rockbell. Is she—

**Interviewer:** We have her. She’s on the _Aegis._

**Edward Elric:** _[Inaudible.]_

* * *

**Interviewer:** Are you okay to continue, Miss Rockbell?

**Winry Rockbell:** I’m all right. My shoulder hurts, that’s all.

**Interviewer:** I’ll have an orderly bring you some more meds. You were saying about your escape from the school?

**Winry Rockbell:** It was…I’ve never seen anything like it. It all became just this _crush_ of people and screaming and pure _terror._ Teachers. Students. I mean, we all _knew_ each other. Colony that isolated, everyone pretty much knows everyone. But as soon as the sirens started, everyone just lost it. I remember getting pushed along in the mob and wondering why the hallway was soft under my boots. And then—then I realized what I was walking on.

**Interviewer:** So how did you get out?

**Winry Rockbell:** I’m a mechanic, and I’m pretty tall for my age. I hit harder than people think.

**Interviewer:** Where did you go after the first missile strike?

**Winry Rockbell:** Everyone was headed for the tube, but I figured a tin can in an underground tunnel was the last place you’d want to be with bombs going off. So—

**Interviewer:** Wait, you people had a subway system? I thought this settlement was illegal?

**Winry Rockbell:** Illegal, yes. Lacking the comforts of the Core systems, absolutely not. The Risembool mines operated undetected for _twenty years._ Whole _families_ lived there. When you’re that far from the Core, you either find a way or make a way.

**Interviewer:** We might be further than you think…

**Winry Rockbell:** …What the hell’s that supposed to mean?

**Interviewer:** Nothing. I’m sorry.

**Interviewer:** You were saying about the subway?

**Winry Rockbell:** Yeah… Right. Basically I didn’t want to risk it down there, so I booked it up and out through the fire escape and doubled back into the parking lot. Which might not have been the best plan, since I didn’t have wheels. And I’m looking around, and the sky is raining fire and I’m still freezing because the wind chill on Risembool in winter could hit forty below on a bad day, and the panic’s starting to hit—and there he was.

**Interviewer:** Who?

**Winry Rockbell:** My ex-boyfriend. Who’d dumped me literally three hours before. So that was…awkward.

**Interviewer:** What did you do?

**Winry Rockbell:** Well, I figured there was a good chance he’d just run me over if I stood in front of the truck. So I knocked on the window and said something charming and stupid like “Lovely day for a drive, guv’nor,” and at that point the southeastern anti-missile battery got vaporized by what I can only _assume_ was a missile. So _maybe_ —just maybe—you might wanna note in your report that those things that are supposed to stop missiles don’t, you know, _stop missiles._

**Interviewer:** So he let you in?

**Winry Rockbell:** He let me in. I guess he figured he didn’t hate me enough to let me get X-ed out by an A-Corp kill squad. Did have to think about it for a minute, though. If anyone can hold a grudge, it’s Ed.

**Interviewer:** How did you know it was the Anthropario Corporation?

**Winry Rockbell:** Let’s see…the first clue _might_ have been the giant A-Corp logo on the warship that dropped out of the sky and was X-ing the rest of the defense silos by then.

**Interviewer:** By “warship”, you mean the A-Corp dreadnought _Wrath?_

**Winry Rockbell:** Yeah, that’s them. ~~Fuck~~ ers. Wait, can I swear in this thing?

* * *

**Interviewer:** So what happened next?

**Edward Elric:** We took off outta the parking lot like we were in a chase scene—which we were, I guess, if people in chase scenes were getting chased by the god ~~damn~~ apocalypse. Some moron had parked blocking the exit, but the truck was all-terrain, so we just rammed it forward and hoped for the best.

**Interviewer:** What was it like outside the school?

**Edward Elric:** There were a lot of explosions and a helluva lot of dead people. Dead civilians who worked for a ~~fuck~~ ing mining company. I mean, imagine you’re an interstellar corporation, right? You discover an illegal mining operation run by one of your competitors. Do you (a) report it to the United Terran Authority and laugh as the fines roll in, or (b) jump an attack fleet and X-out every man, woman, and child on the planet? What the hell was A-Corp thinking?

**Interviewer:** What you and I need to do is focus on what happened Risembool. Gathering intel on the attack is the best thing we can do to help right now.

**Edward Elric:** I can’t believe this.

**Interviewer:** Mr. Elric—

**Edward Elric:** Okay. Fine, whatever. We took the main arterial , and Winry turned on the radio. For a second I thought the idiot was looking for the right soundtrack or something, but there was an emergency broadcast up. They were telling us to get to the spaceport, and our research fleet was going to send down shuttles to ferry us all up to orbit.

* * *

**Interviewer:** So you turned for the spaceport?

**Winry Rockbell:** Yeah. Not gonna lie, I turned on the radio to maybe find some getaway music, but there was an emergency broadcast telling everyone to get to the port for evacuation. So that’s what we tried to do. But there were cars everywhere, and some truck had overturned on the strip. Ed nearly flipped the truck over, and when I offered to drive, he…well, he said some things I wish I could get him back for.

**Interviewer:** I see.

**Winry Rockbell:** I can repeat it if you need it for technical purposes, but—

**Interviewer:** It’s fine, Miss Rockbell.

**Winry Rockbell:** Just Winry, please. Also, while we’re on the whole name thing, where are my parents? Are they alive, or—why can’t I see them?

**Interviewer:** We need you properly debriefed before you have any civilian contact, Miss Rockbell. I mean…Winry.

**Winry Rockbell:** “Civilian contact”? They’re my _mom and dad._ You guys still have parents, don’t you? Or is everyone in the great United Terran Authority get grown in a vat nowadays?

**Winry Rockbell:** Sorry. That—that was out of line. It’s…it’s just…it’s really been a day.

**Interviewer:** Apology accepted. What happened next?

**Winry Rockbell:** A-Corp must’ve picked up on the broadcast, because they blew up the spaceport. Popped a half-dozen missiles and turned it into a smoking hole in the ice. I played geeball with one of the ground crew guys when we were kids—Niklaus Romanov. Thomas Anderson, he worked the quarantine bays, used to volunteer at the hospital my parents work—worked at. There was this girl, Anna James. I knew her since eighth grade. She worked the port comms rig. She was…

**Interviewer:** Winry?

**Winry Rockbell:** Wow. I just realized. She—she was the first person I ever kissed…

* * *

**Interviewer:** Do you need a minute?

**Edward Elric:** Hell no. I’ve wasted enough time. I need to get this done.

**Interviewer:** Mr. Elric—

**Edward Elric:** You want a ~~fuck~~ ing explanation or do you wanna sit there and interrupt me until I _really_ lose it?

**Interviewer:** …Continue.

**Edward Elric:** Thought so. Where was I again?

**Interviewer:** The spaceport was destroyed, I believe.

**Edward Elric:** Right. Once the spaceport was gone, it was hard to know where to head. Mostly we were just trying to outrun the bombs going off on all sides. The ground was shaking, and at first I thought it was just the missiles hitting. Then I realized the impacts were cracking the ice shelf under the colony’s foundations

**Interviewer:** Do you have a background in geology?

**Edward Elric:** I’m seventeen, dumbass, of course I don’t. Doesn’t take a geologist to realize that giant cracks opening up in the ground is bad news for the planet. They were—they were big enough to lose a car down. And before you ask how I know, I saw it happen. There were…fuck, there were kids in the back. Fuck!

**Interviewer:** So you were driving through the city, and what happened next?

**Edward Elric:** Winry wanted to find her mom and dad. They worked at the hospital, but I told her we couldn’t get through the crowd that’d be streaming out of there. They’re strong, like Winry. I told her they’d all be evacuating together, and we had to trust them to keep their feet. If we went in there, someone could jack the truck, and then we’d be as good as dead. I saw a woman pull this guy off a quad bike and take off on it with her kid. I saw a security officer shoot a guy trying to climb into the back of his truck, people were losing their ~~shit~~ , turning on each other. We wouldn’t have made it as far as the hospital. I wanted to go for my mom instead, and my brother Al. My dad was offworld—he works rotation on Jump Station _Xerxes_ —so it was just Mom and me and Al.  She’s a pathologist, had a lab near the school. Al had stayed home sick, but our house was on the way. I thought…I thought it’d be safer.

**Interviewer:** Do you need me to look up your mother’s name on the lists?

**Edward Elric:** No, she made it out. She’s here on the _Flamel._ I saw her before my interview.

**Interviewer:** And your brother?

**Edward Elric:** I…I haven’t looked yet. Can you—

**Interviewer:** Of course. What’s his name?

**Edward Elric:** Alphonse. Alphonse Elric.

**Interviewer:** It’ll take a moment to search…there’s nothing on the confirmed casualty list, but—you said it was Alphonse, correct?

**Edward Elric:** Yeah. Is he—

**Interviewer:** …He’s not on the _Aegis_ or _Flamel,_ Mr. Elric. I’m sorry.

**Edward Elric:** _[Inaudible.]_

**Interviewer:** Do you need a moment, or should we come back to this later, or…?

**Edward Elric:** No—no, I’ve—I’m…oh, God, Al…

**Interviewer:** Mr. Elric, we can—

**Edward Elric:** I’m—I’ve gotta keep going. I’m not the only one who’s lost someone by a long shot, and someone _needs_ to tell people what happened so this doesn’t get covered up or—I can keep going. I _can._ Besides, it’s not—there could be survivors down there, right?

**Interviewer:** I…yes, there could be.

**Edward Elric:** Then there’s—there’s a _chance._

**Interviewer:** Yes, there is. A small one, but it’s there.

**Edward Elric:** As long as it’s more than zero.

**Edward Elric:** What else do you need to know?

**Interviewer:** What did you and Winry decide on?

**Edward Elric:** We started looking for my mom. Winry’s parents were on-call a lot and worked crazy hours, so my mom spent just about a year feeding and looking after her. I think she was more upset about the breakup than anyone. We were heading for her lab, and by that time there were people in the streets riding in all-terrains, some quad bikes, folks on foot. The ground was cracking like an egg and there were chunks breaking off crumbling buildings and the whole while there’s this massive A-Corp ship floating in the sky, pounding our ~~shit~~ ty defenses with missiles. Shuttles were lifting off with civis evacuating. It was so loud I thought my ears were bleeding. And over the top of all that, Winry chooses then to start criticizing my driving.

**Interviewer:** It’s hard to believe you guys broke up.

**Edward Elric:** I know, right? Love story for the ~~fuck~~ ing ages. Anyway, that was when half the cineplex fell on our truck.

* * *

**Interviewer:** Wait, what?

**Winry Rockbell:** _Oh_ yeah. We both passed out after that. I don’t know how long I was out. I came to and thought the sky was covered in spiderwebs, and then I realize I’m looking through the broken windshield and we’re buried under half a building. The truck is scrapped. Ed’s next to me and there’s blood on his face and I couldn’t find a pulse, so I—well, my parents are doctors, I’ve been drilled in CPR since I could walk, so I started chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth…and that’s when he slugged me, Your Honor.

**Interviewer:** Your Ho—wait, he hit you?

**Winry Rockbell:** Yeah, right in the face. Good shot, too. I dunno; he thought I was trying to kiss him or something. He’d hit his head, he was messed up, tired, terrified out of his god ~~damn~~ mind same as me. So we wind up to start yelling at each other, and then we realize the sky is full of Cyclone fighter ships, and I figure the cavalry must have arrived.

**Interviewer:** Could you still see the _Wrath?_

**Winry Rockbell:** No. But we could see the hospital sector had been hit, along with the refinery. It was covered in this…it’s hard to describe. It was like a mist, but it was black, shimmery like oil. Creeping through the air slow as molasses, as if it was _alive,_ right out of a horror movie. It was something strange— _different._

**Interviewer:** You said your mother and father worked at the hospital?

**Winry Rockbell:** Yeah. So of course, I want to go look for them, and Ed still wants to find Aunt Trisha—uh, Ms. Elric and Al. And the glacier is cracking open and the sky is on fire and I think I can see A-Corp ground troops in the distance. And then I said it.

* * *

**Interviewer:** What did she say?

**Edward Elric:** She said, “You picked a hell of a day to dump me, Ed.”

* * *

**Interviewer:** …You honestly said that?

**Winry Rockbell:** Shock and stupidity tend to take away any ability to keep your foot out of your mouth. ‘Course, this makes all hell break loose, and he’s yelling at me, and I’m yelling back. All this stuff that’d been building up for the last year and boiling just under the skin. Like, I loved him. I _love_ him, like I don’t think I’ve ever really loved anyone. But he had this way of just…it was so stupid. _We_ were so stupid. The world is ending all around us, our families could be dead or dying or worse for all we know, and we’re screaming about college applications and commitment and ~~shit~~. I mean, can you believe that?

**Interviewer:** You’re seventeen, right?

**Winry Rockbell:** Almost eighteen.

**Interviewer:** Then yes, I believe it.

**Winry Rockbell:** Ouch. That’s pretty cold.

**Interviewer:** So what happened next?

**Winry Rockbell:** I took off. He told me I was crazy, and it _was_ crazy, but I was just…furious. And my parents, they’re all I have, so…yeah. Ran toward the hospital, burning cars and trashed buildings everywhere. I saw a Cyclone crash into an apartment block right in front of my face. Felt the heat of the explosion _on my skin,_ but I just didn’t care, kept trying to get close to the hospital. There were AC troops all over, though. Big, armor-plated goons in winter camo carrying guns you could kill a glacieosaur with, as if they were going up against a battalion of hardened UTA soldiers instead of slaughtering terrified civilians. I didn’t really have a plan, I just—I needed to find my mom and dad. Didn’t know what I was going to do once I hit that black fog stuff, but that ended up not being a problem.

**Interviewer:** Why’s that?

**Winry Rockbell:** Well, they shot me.

* * *

**Interviewer:** They shot her?

**Edward Elric:** I couldn’t believe it either. I mean, on one hand, get in line, but on the other…I was terrified.

**Interviewer:** You said you’d parted ways at that stage. How did you find out she’d been shot?

**Edward Elric:** I started by heading toward my mom’s lab on foot, but there were a bunch of A-Corp troops in the way. They were putting carriers down on the ground and rolling out soldiers and all-terrain vehicles. I was a little concussed, I’m pretty sure. I know I stopped to throw up at some point. I could see shuttles landing out by the labs to try and do evac, so I just hoped my mom was getting on one of them and started trying to get to my house, and…well, more A-Corp bastards. So I decided to head to the one person whose location I sort-of _did_ know, even if we were currently mortal enemies. I wasn’t going to make it far without another truck, though…so I stole one from A-Corp.

**Interviewer:** I’m sorry, you what?

**Edward Elric:** I am frequently underestimated. I think it’s because I’m short.

**Interviewer:** They didn’t want it back?

**Edward Elric:** Eh, probably. They were pretty busy trying to get out of the way of the angry concussed teenager behind the wheel.

**Interviewer:** …Fair enough. What then?

**Edward Elric:** I knew my way around the middle of town—they didn’t. Home court advantage, I guess. Took some sharp corners around the back of the community complex, scraped the truck doors clean off. When I came out the other end, I’d lost them. Our people didn’t have weapons to shoot at me with, and theirs thought I was on the same team, so I made it.

**Interviewer:** What was going on by the refinery?

**Edward Elric:** I saw this filthy black cloud oozing down from atmo around the refinery, and I knew that was where Winry was. I heard it was some kind of bio-attack. Is that true?

**Interviewer:** I don’t know. You said she was shot, so I guess you found her?

**Edward Elric:** On the wrong end of an A-Corp platoon, bleeding all over the ~~fuck~~ ing place. I kind of freaked out when I found her.

**Interviewer:** Were you able to retrieve her?

**Edward Elric:** I, uh… Are there gonna be any prosecutions for stuff that happened down there?

**Interviewer:** They X-ed out a quarter of my crew. None of us are going to weep if you’re telling me you took out an A-Corp squad to get to her.

**Edward Elric:** Like I said, I’m pretty small, and there was a lot of blood all over everything. I guess my foot slipped on the accelerator. It was hard to reach, you know? I ran a bunch of them down and pulled up right beside her.

**Interviewer:** What did she do?

**Edward Elric:** She said, “Nice of you to drive in,” and started laughing like an idiot. What a god ~~damn~~ catch.

**Interviewer:** I’m sensing a trend here.

**Edward Elric:** Some of us get mad, others try to joke through getting shot, I guess. The truck’s door was missing and the shot wasn’t fatal, thank Christ, so it was easy for her to climb in, and then we took off like we were outrunning a blizzard. We could see shuttles coming down on the outskirts of town, and they had no A-Corp markings on them, so we risked it. We were hoping they were evac sent by our research fleet.

* * *

**Interviewer:** And then what?

**Winry Rockbell:** I don’t remember much. I think I made a joke about needing to see his license and registration. Because, you know, he just ran over a bunch of—

**Interviewer:** I get it.

**Winry Rockbell:** Right. And then I said, “I’m bleeding,” and he said, “If you die on me I’m going to kill you,” so I just kinda concentrated on not dying. There was blood everywhere. It hurt so much I think I started laughing again, and Ed freaked—shock, probably. He was yelling at me to put pressure on it, and I knew I should have, but it hurt less if I didn’t. There were fighters overhead. I remember being really cold. I remember looked at Ed driving, covered in blood, with his hair crusted with snow and ice and dirt. I think I told him something stupid and romantic, because he started yelling even more. Can’t really remember, ‘cause then the lights went out.

* * *

**Interviewer:** You made it to the shuttles?

**Edward Elric:** We made it close. We were driving an A-Corp truck now, so I had to stop and drag Winry over the ice so they could see we were civilians. A couple of the med center staff had made it out, so they were putting the wounded on shuttles with them and directing the rest of us into the others. I was screaming my head off, trying to get someone to help me lift her in. I don’t even know how I dragged her. The whole time there were these missiles arcing in and exploding around us, fires starting, the world ending. I guess they decided if I could yell that loud, I wasn’t hurt bad enough to make the wounded shuttle, so they made me leave her with the doc. That’s how I ended up here on _Flamel_ and Winry on _Aegis._

**Interviewer:** You’ve been very helpful. Did you see any missiles hit the refinery?

**Edward Elric:** I don’t think so, just that weird black cloud bullshit. They wouldn’t blow it up, though, would they? I mean, if A-Corp wanted the colony gone, they would’ve just ratted us out to the UTA. They obviously wanted the hermium we were mining for themselves. They’d hardly destroy the only way they had to process it.

**Interviewer:** We can’t speculate yet on what their aim was.

**Edward Elric:** I guess if they catch up with us, we can ask them before they X us all.

**Interviewer:** Thank you for your time, Mr. Elric. And for what it’s worth, I hope your brother’s alive down there.

**Edward Elric:** …Yeah, me too.

* * *

**Interviewer:** There’s just one last thing, Miss Rockbell.

**Winry Rockbell:** Can this thing please include the pain meds you promised?

**Interviewer:** We’ve had another update to the casualty lists. I’m afraid I have some news about your parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed these two brief chapters, please leave a comment or a kudos! Thank you for reading, and I'll see you in the next update.
> 
> See you later, alligator  
> -writing_addict


End file.
